The present invention relates to auxiliary connectors for connecting auxiliary cables to battery terminals and more particularly to adapters for permitting connection of auxiliary connectors to side-terminal batteries.
In the past, conventional batteries such as, for example, lead-acid batteries for use in motor vehicles, included terminal posts projecting upward from the top of the battery. Such terminal posts were convenient for clamping or otherwise attaching booster or charging auxiliary cables employing clamp type auxiliary connectors having a pair of opposed resiliently urged jaws such as shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,145,648 and 4,163,134.
More recently, side-terminal batteries have become available in which, instead of having terminal posts projecting upward where they can be reached for connection of auxiliary connectors, such batteries have terminal bolts screwed into threaded positive and negative terminal receptacles on the side walls of the battery. The receptacles project, at the most, only slightly beyond the side wall of the battery, thus making it difficult or impossible to engage side battery terminals with traditional gripping jaws of auxiliary connectors. This difficulty is further compounded by the fact that most vehicle batteries are retained in a metallic battery container having close clearance to the side of the battery and making it difficult or impossible to obtain access for the attachment of the clamping jaws of an auxiliary connector.
In order to attempt to overcome this difficulty, an auxiliary clamp for side-battery terminals has been disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,745,516 which has one end adapted to engage a side-battery terminal and a second end projecting above the battery upon which conventional gripping jaws of an auxiliary connector may be clamped. The disclosed device has a disadvantage that it depends upon spring-back of relatively stiff material for its clamping action. The clamping jaws of such an adapter may become deformed either to produce too loose a fit for a satisfactory mechanical and electrical connection to the side terminal or too tight a fit to prevent connection thereto. Furthermore, in a sense, such adapter is a small free item, it is easily misplaced under conditions normal for storage of battery cables when not in use.